This hymn was being sung by Christians when Charlemagne was a baby in a stroller and the whole Western Hemisphere a legend–Be Thou My Vision, an Irish hymn from the 8th century. Requested by “thewhiterabbit” and entered into the hymn contest.
Sung by the Lebanon County Youth Choir. Background sets by God the Father.
How many commandments are they breaking here?
I’m re-running this post as a public service. When abortion-loving Kamala Harris tells us that “the Bible says” we should all get shot up with some experimental COVID drug. The day we need religious advice from that source will be a sad day indeed.
St. Peter tells us that the Bible is not ambiguous. It does not tell us we can perform abortions, teach little children that they should be “transgender,” and “marry” a man to a man, a woman to a woman, a human to a toaster-oven.
There is no “private interpretation” of Scripture–none that’s allowed, at least.
Steer clear of anyone who claims to have one.
(Thanks to “thewhiterabbit” for suggesting biographical sketches)
Who doesn’t know the song, “London Bridge is falling down”? Ah–but why did it fall? Did someone pull it down?
In 1014 Olaf Haraldsson, a viking from Norway, joined a wider coalition of vikings–we would call them armed robbers, but to the Norse peoples in the 11th century, it was a perfectly respectable way to earn a living–and invaded England, attacking London. During the battle for the city, Olaf tied his ships to some of the bridge’s support beams and had his men row like mad. The beams were pulled loose and the bridge fell down. The defenders couldn’t get from one part of the city to the other to reinforce each other.
This Olaf Haraldsson is known to us today as St. Olaf, patrol saint of Norway and one-time king of Norway.
Olaf’s claim to the throne was no better and no worse than many chieftains’. He got to the top and made it stick for a little while–until King Canute the Great of Denmark engineered a revolt. In 1030 Olaf died in the Battle of Stiklestad. In 1031 he was canonized locally, and in 1164 the Church recognized his sainthood as having universal application.
Yes, yes, there is and always has been endless controversy as to Olaf’s character, his Christianity, his government, and everything else about him. But the fact, the indisputable fact, is that very shortly after his death, people all over the Northlands revered him as a saint and attributed miracles to him. A blind king of the Bulgars swore he “saw” Olaf, by then many years dead, rallying the Byzantine army against him. No one else could see him, but no one accused the Bulgar king of making up a story. Why, after all, should he have done that?
It is recorded in the sagas that Olaf insisted that the men who fought for him should all be Christians. After Stiklestad Canute was not able to hold Norway for long. For a thousand years St. Olaf’s holiness has been a spiritual anchor for Norway.
Not quite what you’d expect from a man who pulled down London Bridge.
One of many vain substitutes
(Hint: Yes.)
When I was a little boy, there were at least three Bibles in the house–not counting my own, given to me in 1958 at Sunday school–and I don’t know how many books of Bible stories. My Uncle Bernie was a Methodist Sunday school teacher, and my Aunt Betty was a teaching nun. Yes, the kids in our family knew who their Savior was. The family saw to that.
Now look at us.
Throughout the Bible we are exhorted to teach our children God’s word, God’s ways. Today we send them off to public schools to learn about 40 different “genders” and being guilty ’cause you’re white.
Bible illiteracy has consequences.
Just look at our culture.
Somehow that “Great Reset” slogan rubbed people the wrong way, so the self-anointed elites don’t say it anymore. Their new buzzword is “Build back better!” Like King COVID has given them the chance to scrap all that messy freedom stuff and create a statist utopia… with no more germs in it.
And I got to wondering, “Where have I heard this before?”
In the Bible, Isaiah Chapter 9. God has just warned the tribe of Ephraim and the city of Samaria that He is highly displeased with them and is going to make them feel it. But do they listen?
Verse 10: Ephraim and Samaria, “who say with pride and arrogance of heart, The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.”
You gonna punish us, God? Huh? Well, go ahead–and we’ll just build back better!
This is generally the kind of thing that precedes total ruin. This is the pride that goeth before a fall.
Too many of our leaders have no fear of God.
That’s how we wind up being governed by fools.
This is one of my all-time favorite hymns, and Heidi didn’t have to ask twice for me to post it. The only problem lay in choosing which version of it to post.
To Be a Pilgrim, also known and loved as He Who Would Valiant Be, rests on the original lyrics written by John Bunyan in 1684. I love this version by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band.
You may remember that the Infernal Revenue Service last month refused to grant tax-exempt status to a non-profit group, Christians Engaged. I’ll give you the incredible reason for that decision in a minute.
This week the IRS reversed itself–because most of the nation was outraged over it–and granted tax-exempt status to the Christian group (https://www.newsmax.com/politics/irs-christians-engaged-tax/2021/07/08/id/1027891/).
Why did they refuse to do that in the first place?
Because…”The Bible’s teaching is affiliated with the Republican Party”! (https://leeduigon.com/2021/06/21/who-knew-the-irs-is-ignorant/).
We are not told which particular idiot wrote that ruling. But we are thankful that the IRS reversed itself… after Republicans in Congress formally objected to it.
Who knew the Bible was based on the ideology of the Republican Party, which didn’t even come into existence until almost 2,000 years after the Bible was written? Uh, this Far Left ninny in the IRS “knew” that. I wonder what else he or she “knows.”
Really, if the GOP is the best the Bible can do, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
Meanwhile, some jackass in the IRS has succeeded in branding his own beloved Democrats as the Anti-Bible Party.
I don’t think we can quarrel with that.
Yes, we do get disappointed, yes, it’s hard to take… when we need a solid Christian stand from our leaders–from our clergy, at least. if no one else–and all we get is dodgeball. R.J. Rushdoony in 1995 took aim at “Empty Suits.”
https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/empty-suits
Where do these craven, chicken-hearted, fumfering leaders come from? They come from us. Even if elections are rigged in favor of the empty suits, the lucky empty winners are still born and raised and educated by us. No enemy country imposed them on us. They didn’t drop out of the sky.
If we don’t seek God, neither will our leaders.
You do wonder, sometimes, what goes on in seminaries–at least, when you see the kind of graduates coming out of seminaries. A little tag from Revelation springs to mind: “the synogogue of Satan” (Rev. 2:9).
Standing in front of the camera, trumpeting their support for Planned Parenthood–have they no fear of God?
I doubt that they believe in Him.
I had never heard this hymn before. Click “CC” for lyrics: they are not easy, comfortable, “just be nice” lyrics. One thinks of the souls under the altar in Revelation 6, martyred, murdered, by a wicked world and waiting for God to avenge them.
Sung by students from Fountainview Academy, in front of the Colisseum–and we know what happened there, don’t we?
Note: The hymn contest is still on, but I haven’t received any entries yet today.